About immigration: a word to the wise

Today I read some unpleasantness on a local blog about illegal immigration. The blogmeister(s) made the mistake of quoting F.A.I.R. For the uninitiated (read Baptism by Fire), F.A.I.R. is the Federation for American Immigration Reform. F.A.I.R.’s objectives are to secure the border (southern), to stop illegal immigration and by their own admission, limited the number of legal immigrants into the country.

Here’s the reality of the situation. Supervisor Candland, whether rightly or wrongly, is associated in many people’s minds with the blog where I read the diatribe about unaccompanied minors and the remarks and report by F.A.I.R. He does not want to be associated with F.A.I.R. nor does he want to appear to be anti-immigration.

There are many immigrants living in his district. Many are documented, some are undocumented. When he looks out his front window, he probably doesn’t see as many immigrants as I do. I see middle class immigrants walking their little children to school. These children are clean, and neat and their parents are preparing them to learn for the day. I expect these folks vote.

It just really isn’t smart to come across as someone supporting a nativist group like F.A.I.R. Supervisor Candland, please stay away from anything to do with F.A.I.R. Unaccompanied minors are not our enemy nor our problem. You don’t want to be declaring war on children regardless of what your advisors tell you. You certainly don’t want to be basing any decisions for PWC on a F.A.I.R. report. I can guarantee you it will be biased. This group has a not so hidden agenda. Our county has been used by this group before. Their actions caused great strife in the county. We do not need them.

We had around 2,500 new kids on the roster in Prince William County. Schools do not know the status of the children attending. All LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students are not foreign born. Some are American citizens. Not all LEP students actively take classes. Some are monitored, especially the older children. Not all LEP students are unaccompanied minors. Most live with their own families. The state gives the county money for LEP instruction. The cost isn’t totally covered but a stipend is given. No one ever receives instruction in any language but English.

Let’s not have another boogie man. Supervisor Candland, you are probably innocent of all this hysteria. Please do not get swept into the maelstrom I saw on the blog where you are the favorite son. I have never read so much misinformation. It just isn’t a winning proposition for you. I hope you will run, not walk, away from this situation.

If republicans were serious about securing the southern border, they need to pass legislation to fund the department of Homeland Security. It is due to run out of money in a couple weeks. Securing the border costs a lot of money.

I read that blog post. Pure crap. The Sheriff threw out a number of dubious references generally dismissed by the thinking public and drew the conclusions he wanted.

The Sheriff hangs around Candland and Lawson’s neck. I hope they both get primaried by people who aren’t right wing crazies or challanged in the general election by a blue dog Democrat. If they get booted out, the Sheriff might just go with them.

Yes, you have been using that ID pretty much since this blog has been in existence, maybe even before.

I was speechless when I saw old SoN quoting FAIR. Then I got even more speechless when someone came along and exonerated Corey for having anything to do with our nasty business. What a bunch of bull crap.

I spoke with representatives from Youth for Tomorrow, last summer. They are educating their own kids. Why does anyone care?!!!

I saw some of their students in a local gym. They were well-chaperoned and were perfectly behaved. If you read some of the local blogs you would think that we had marauding gangs of thugs coming from out there. I can assure everyone that these were decent kids. I specifically asked who they were because they had impressive behavior.

I think the mother of that child who was a home nurse, (as I recall) had a nasty little habit of crying wolf about sexual abuse.

He had some real serious problems for a while until that was cleared up. I think, in his case, that he was an innocent victim of someone’s get rich quick scheme. That isn’t right either. He probably has a lot of bad Karma.

I don’t think being cruel is ever fun. It sure made me think about the way I do business, that’s for sure.

I just believe he has gone outside his area of expertise. Why would anyone link their fair-haired child to a blog, then start quoting an organization that has been named as a hate group?

As far as I am concerned, they are all “johnny come latelies” to this rodeo.

what an incredibly stupid thing to try to hang ones favorite son on. I feel badly for Pete actually.

Most of the info in that report was really just plain old wrong. Lots of disconnects in there. No cause/effect.

Yea, right…there are more illegal alien children being educated in PWC than there were back in 2007 and 2008. NOT.
Furthermore, schools simply do not know the immigration status of their students. They also cannot ask.

Not sure where to post this, but I am heart broken by the
the murder of three students at UNC – apparently shot in the
head by an angry at the world deranged gun nut with
parking space issues. They,by all accounts, were smart caring
students. As one neighbor said “Good Muslims, Good Americans”.

Charlottesville, Blacksburg, Chapel Hill – such sadness with young
lives cut short. So much promise lost.

The Southern Poverty Law Center. Gimme a break. That group would have the original Apostles on their hate group list if those gents were still with us. The SPLC is becoming such a joke these days that, if you are a Christian advocacy group using your First Amendment rights and aren’t on their hate list, you must not be very effective at espousing your cause.

The first aliyah flight from Eastern Ukraine went out in December. Hopefully, there will soon be one per month — as long as needed and as long as contributions keeping coming in. Trying to survive in a war zone is tough, on top of other reasons for leaving.

The SPLC has had to apologize to Dr. Ben Carson for placing him on their extremist hate list because he has expressed openly his moral beliefs on abortion and same-sex marriage. Dr. Ben Carson, no less. That SPLC list must be miles long — everyone who doesn’t agree with them and has the means to say so. 1984.

Actually, they have a fairly standard way of determining that list. why don’t you go look at it. There’s a lot of hate out there.

I seriously doubt that Dr. Ben Carson got on a hate list because of his beliefs on abortion and same-sex marriage. Actually, he wasn’t on the hate list, he was on the extremist list. Check out for yourself some of what he has said and then let’s talk about some of his more “non-mainstream” ideas:

Blogmeister, when you talk about the SPLC and neo-Nazis and the KKK, you are talking mostly about the past. Ole Maurice Dees and company have been making their big donor bucks largely off the backs of diasgreements on social issues these days. Speak out on those issues organizationally in a way the Dees people don’t like and you wind up on their hate list as liberal blog fodder.

And SPLC DID apologize to Dr. Ben for listing him. Must have been some serious heat on them over that one.

And since when are “mainstream ideas” or “non-mainstream ideas” a legitimate criteria for placing people on hate lists in our glorious Republic with its Constitution and Bill of Rights? Just whose “mainstream” is it anyway? Do we have some Central Office for Official Mainstreams?

In any case, I posit that the contemporary SPLC belongs on its own hate list.

Wolve, Its Morris Dees I believe. That group ends up being a little liberal for my tastes also. However, and this is an important however, they don’t just slap people on their various watch lists because they don’t like them. They have standards and criteria. What I said was they didn’t HAVE to remove Dr. Ben. They chose to and issued a statement regarding it.

Neo Nazis are not in the past. They are alive and kicking unfortunately. KKK is still alive also and living within a stone’s throw of my neighborhood. They should be noted, marked, and watched.

They also go after groups you might consider “left wing” Check out their hate map. One such group is in Virginia.

You know, you might say Woop de do all you want. I might say the same thing. You know I am probably would never give a dime to this organization. However, you need to look at what having such a classification can do to you. ADL and SPLC both classify groups and individuals based on criteria.

Making one of these lists can hurt your employment and it can keep you from getting a security clearance. It isn’t just about being conservative. Intent and words directed at others play a major role.

Meanwhile, we have a local blog who is quoting reports from F.A.I.R. after being told that this organization has been labeled a hate group by SPLC.

Can you imagine being a child, maybe even a teenager, and you are thousands of miles away from your parents and home and all the people you know?

Maybe your mother sent you to America so you wouldn’t be killed by gangs. Maybe your parents left you with relatives so they could go find work. These unaccompanied minor children are refugees.

I think the under-roo blog has lost sight of the fact that these are children and they are refugees. Hate me all you want. It doesn’t matter to me. What does matter to me is that our local government not target these children. If that happens, then folks might just see how much I care.

When you get to be my age, you learn to sort out what really matters. A few AH’s on a blog hating my guts is nothing. BFD. What does matter to me is that children be reunited with their parents or with someone who can care for them and that they receive an education, so they can learn to care for themselves. I have spent a career lifetime trying to prepare young people for the future. Why should I stop now, just because a few loud mouths want take out their frustration on a bunch of kids.

I think I have known at least 20 undocumented aliens. All have been extremely hard working, honest, clean, law abiding, polite, family oriented, and rock ribbed. It seems that they expect the worst from this country and also believe that they will persevere, because compared to where they are from, this place is paradise no matter what happens. (To all combat veterans: “If I survive this, the rest of my life will be gravy”.)

I have personally known a dozen or so politicians. Most have been hard working, semi-honest if the situation calls for it, outwardly law abiding, polite in public, self-oriented, and loosey-goosey when it comes to policy issues. It seems that they expect voters of this country to re-elect them if they continue to serve up tired and worn out rhetoric and also believe they will

persevere.

I recommend to Supervisor Candland and any others that want to be known as pragmatists, look at the real world. American voters, like me, have not seen ONE negative factor arising from illegal immigration. My immigrant friends are exactly who I want living here.

What a really great statement, BS. That should give us all pause to think. Your semi- comparison was super.

Let me also say, one more time, I don’t think Supervisor Candland is a bad person. Not at all. I think he gets some bad advice and then plays to what he considers his perceived base rather than looking at the magisterial district as a whole. We (The Gainesville District) are really his base–not the elitist tea party-ites who claim him. The Gainesville District comes in all flavors, not just vanilla.

I think you are right. That’s really sad that they have to pick on children for political advantage. Those children didn’t make the rules or probably even understand them. They are thousands of miles away from their homeland and alone.

I just read an important point. These children are no longer undocumented. I guess that makes them no longer an “illegal.”

Furthermore, Obama followed the law. He didn’t make that law that forces us to allow children from non-contiguous countries past the border. I would rather him be the enemy rather than those kids. The under-roos crowd is also welcome to hate me. Better to hate old ladies than defenseless children. I will just continue to make fun of them with my ink by the gallons.

Moon-howler :
I don’t know much about Ben Carson. He just seems like a run of the mill AH to me. Am I missing something?

One of the most notable neurosurgeons in the country, now retired from Johns Hopkins as professor of neurosurgery and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. First man to successfully separate twins conjoined by their heads. Very smart. Not exactly run of the mill in any way.

I sure thought Corey had ridden the immigration nag into the ground. It was cruel, but it served its purpose for one cycle and then I thought there would be an awareness that the next demagogue can’t just stuff sawdust back in the old nag and ride her into the ground again. Apparently not.

No kidding, Scout. I thought that one was dead, gone and buried. Corey truly rode it to death. It dropped dead on the race track.

Now SoN has resuscitated it once again. Artificial life support was brought in by disgraced FAIR, the nativist group, and I’ll be damned in SoN didn’t grasp it up by the neck and try again. Supervisor Candland and his uncanny link to SoN will probably bring it back up during the next BOCS meeting. Expect much neighing and braying out of the Gainesville Supervisor over this issue.

Please, please let me be wrong. PWC doesn’t need to tarnish its reputation even further with its anti-immigration stance. Make no mistake, newcomers, FAIR IS and will remain and anti immigration group.

Greg has an interesting article up on the subject of unaccompanied minors. He and I will never agree on this issue, in all probability, but he understands the reality: sending Obama a bill for services will not work.

This isn’t Greg’s first rodeo.

I haven’t seen evidence that all those kids are in PWCS. Sorry. War on kids is never good. I would declare war on my congressman instead. They are the ones who have a lot more control over the situation.

If all the hysteria-driven energy that Greg, Corey and others expended on running around with their hair on fire a few years ago had been spent on a more calm inventory of local impacts, my guess is that there would have been a political path in Congress to addressing demonstrable costs (which are far less than the screaming-mimi costs) that impact local government as a result of federal immigration programs and getting some kind of compensating impact aid. The costs would have to have been netted out against benefits, but it spoiled the hysteria to talk about economic benefits of immigration and no one wanted to put down the pitchforks and torches long enough to take out the sharp pencils.

Your reference to the other blog reminded me of a rather twisted set of facts presented by “them” regarding a new school in Stafford. Stafford builds a school for $45M why does PWC need $90M screams the headline. Here is the truth

The school in his article is Stafford High School on Stafford Indian Ln Fredricksburg
It is NOT a new school it is a rebuild
The rebuild (according to the CIP document) cost $65m
No land purchase
Minimal site work
Same foundation
No interior furnishings

That, people, is how that man twists the truth to suit his personal objectives. He used this rebuild to slam PWC Schools and some BoS members for their purported gross mismanagement of tax dollars. Bottom line, he basically lied to further some dark logic.

Further, the rebuild will only accommodate 100 more students.

There is more truth is this weeks Star Magazine than that blog. This was a humdinger. Anyone who believes anything other than the date on that blog is foolish

Illegal immigration is… well… illegal. But I am not against helping our southern neighbors financially, in their own homes. After all, that is what neighbors are for. I am also not against accepting their nations as new states in our union. It appears that many citizens of these nations are already voting in favor of this… with their feet!

I don’t encourage illegal immigration either. I think as a nation, we have ever right, in fact, we have a responsibility, to know who is in this country.

However, we do have an illegal immigrant population that is rather large. We need to resolve this issue so there are no illegal immigrants. It seems to make sense to allow those folks who have behaved themselves and been productive members of their new society an opportunity to change their status.

Illegal immigration is a reflection of a dysfunctional legal immigration system. This is true whether on the southern US border or the Iron Curtain. The answer is to restructure the system so that it conforms to economic reality. Labor and capital will try to flow from areas of surplus to areas of need. A sound immigration regime harnesses up that tendency to promote economic growth. Unlike capital, which has no soul, labor has the added motivation of human aspiration for liberty, health, stability. The US has always benefitted from immigration. We’d be a much lesser country without it. If we construct a system that is easy to use, easy to manage, easy to track, there will be virtually no illegal immigration.

If I were the school board, I would point to the BOCS and blame then. Then I would start slicing and dicing like crazy, starting with the middle school sports program. I would cut out all transportation to specialty programs. I would only buy classroom sets of text books since that’s being done anyway. Then I would make sure the teachers didn’t get a raise and I would insist that class size be at state max. Then I would blame the BOCS.

I am tired of them always trying to go on the cheap and make the school board always try to make chicken salad out of chicken sh!t.

The schools have just been pinched for too many years. Its time for it to stop. Maybe the parents would get a commitment from supervisors to fund the schools if this business went to crisis level.

BTW, it breaks my heart to make such a suggest but I see no other way. Parents, teachers and kids, your schools are nothing more than political tools for everyone to try to out-Republican each other.